Miitopia: Running Away
by Peachportal
Summary: Isha never meant to get caught up in all of this. She just wanted to take some time away from home. Now she's a trainee Mage on a quest to defeat the Dark Lord. She'd like to get out of this foolish quest, but since the Dark Lord knows who she is, she can't live a normal life until he's gone. Not that she could ever go back to how it was before.
1. It Came Down

This is a Miitopia fanfiction. Yay. I'm not a good writer, but I will try to not make it horrible. I will be following the main plot, but I will be changing the way some things play out. I also may change the way some mechanics work.

* * *

Isha, a traveler, did not fail to notice the steadily darkening sky. It seemed much too early for it to have darkened so much, but she initially shrugged it off, not trusting her internal clock. She'd never been especially good at judging the passage of time. She had already been traveling for almost a week, but it did not feel nearly as long.

That thought prompted her to wonder how much longer she would be wandering out there. Right before she left, her parents had given her their blessing, asking her to please return soon. But how soon was soon, exactly? It had been a rather rash decision, to leave like that without any protection, and she could acknowledge that, but she still thought it was the right choice. She had felt an irresistible need to escape from what had happened, and now that she had seen what it was really like away from home, she felt compelled to stay away forever. She never wanted to deal with that again. But would it really be worth it, to never see them again?

She was pulled out of her thoughts by a strange sight. Before her eyes was a bubble with...something in it. She walked closer, squinting. Then she blinked and shook her head quickly, her hair briefly flying around her face. That couldn't be right. It looked like a pair of eyes. She watched, fascinated and rather confused, as the eyes swung around and attached themselves to a rock moth with a flash of light. Something told her it was dangerous, but she was too curious. She walked forward, trying to get a closer look when it spun around and slapped her in the face with its wings.

That hurt a lot more than it should have. It was just a bug, for goodness' sake! She would have liked to stay to find out why the moth was doing that and how it could hit so hard, but her sense was finally returning to her. She ran, as fast as she could, and even when she was pretty far from the moth, she continued to run, until her strength failed her. She then found that in this wild, senseless run, she had come across a little town. She quickly cleaned her newly-smudged glasses on her shirt before walking in.

While she had been running, she had not noticed that it was getting steadily darker as she went. Now, in this town, she saw that not only was it much darker than it should have been, but the sky itself had changed. She knew that something was very, very wrong.

Before even looking around, she noticed the silence. At home, in that little town, there had always been noise. Even at night, there was always some animal rustling around in the bushes. Here, the only sound was her own footsteps. But the thing that really creeped her out was the townspeople. As she walked farther into the town, they turned towards her. That was when she discovered that quite a few of them didn't have faces.

She gasped, running forward and staring around the town. Some people still had their faces, but many did not. That meant...those floating eyes she'd seen earlier? Those were from someone's face. Maybe even from one of the people she saw in this town. She had to find out what had happened.

The closest person with a face was a woman holding a boy tightly.

When Isha approached her, the woman looked at her helplessly. "Oh, please help my son, Asher, I beg you! Please!"

"How did this happen?"

"This Dark Lord guy just came and-and stole off their faces! Please, adventurer, get my son's face back!"

I really don't think I'll be any help…" Isha began, but seeing the worried, heartbroken face on the mother, she relented. "I will do what I can."

"Oh, thank you, thank you!" The mother paused for a moment, then pulled out a little necklace with a charm on it. "Here, take this. It's our family's good luck charm. Maybe it will help you with your search for Asher's face."

Isha accepted it, thanking her and promising to try as hard as she could to reclaim the little boy's face. She left the town, feeling some relief when she left the dark atmosphere. As she walked farther away, she realized just what she had promised. Rather than continuing to wander and be safe if she could escape this Dark Lord's notice, she just had to get herself involved. In fact, it was highly probable that she would have to go right up to the Dark Lord and ask for the kid's face, in which case he would probably just steal her face and be done with it. But she had made a promise, and she had to follow through on it. Maybe, if this somehow didn't end horribly, she could redeem herself through it.

It turned out that it was not at all hard to find the Dark Lord. In fact, it was more like he found her. _This is a terrible idea_ , she thought, and then she found herself marching up to the Dark Lord. "Give Asher's face back!"

The Dark Lord brought (she assumed) Asher's face down, in a bubble like the eyes she had seen earlier. "What, this thing?" He paused. "Hmm. Maybe I will give this one back. But you'll have to earn it." He waved his hands, making a yellow blob appear. "How good are you in a fight?"

She stared at it, terribly frightened. If a moth could do that much damage to her back there...and since she was still tired and kind of hurting from a few minutes ago…

The face spiraled down, attaching itself to the blob with a flash of light, just like when the eyes attached to the moth.

"Be seeing you! If you survive, that is," the Dark Lord said, laughing and abruptly flying up.

The slime stretched towards her, ready to hit her as hard as it could. She trembled, too afraid to dodge or fight back or anything. She waited for death to come, but a few seconds later, she was still alive. She opened her eyes to see that the necklace had floated up into the air between her and the slime and that it was now glowing. A voice, seemingly coming from the necklace, called her name. She was then transported to a strange, blue room.

"Isha! Can you hear me?"

"Um, yes."

"You might not believe this, but I'm kind of what you would call a 'guardian spirit.'"

"Huh?"

"I'm here to save you and stuff. Anyway, you seem to be in a bit of trouble there!"

"That's a bit of an understatement, but yeah."

"Would you like some help?"

"Sure, that would be nice."

"I, er, bestoweth upon thee the awesome power of the guardian! Now, choose a job!"

The guardian spirit quickly explained each of the six available jobs to her. She knew immediately which one she would choose.

"I'd like to be a mage, please."

"Of course, of course! Just one moment, please."

There was a bright flash of light. When Isha opened her eyes, she found that she was wearing a blue-and-red robe, along with a matching hat. She was holding a wand, although it was really more of a stick.

"Now you're ready to fight! Go on and save that kid's face!"

Isha found herself back in the real world, facing that little slime. It still scared her, but she knew that she had to beat it. To save the kid's face and her own life. She frowned at the slime, raising her stick threateningly. She was ready.


	2. Raiden

These chapters will most likely be revised over and over and over again in order to make things more consistent in regards to personality. These will usually only be minor changes.

* * *

Isha glared at the slime, raising her stick and waving it around. She tried to still her trembling arm, but she was too afraid still. The slime was almost as tall as she was, and she could still remember how it felt when that moth slapped her. Surely, if the Dark Lord created this little slime specifically to defeat her, it would be even tougher, wouldn't it?

She ran forward, slapping it as hard as she could with her wand. It actually kind of hurt to hit it, and she knew that she would be sore the next day if she kept this up. Of course, there wouldn't be a next day for her if she didn't keep going, so she ignored her exhaustion from her previous run and the growing pain in her hands.

It then struck her, slamming its yellow slimy body into her. It didn't hurt as much as the moth had, which really surprised her. She didn't have time to speculate about why that might be, because it was already getting ready for another attack.

She hit it again before retreating a bit. It was surprisingly tough for literally being made of slime.

It approached her and attacked in the same manner. Even the second hit from the slime didn't hurt her quite as much as the moth had. Was it really just weaker? Or was it because of the armor she had on?

She hit it again, but it still wasn't defeated. This time, she was ready for its attack. She glared at it and steeled herself, holding her stick up. When it hit her, it didn't hurt nearly as much.

After two more hits (and two more of its attacks), It finally disappeared in a flash of light (why is everything flashing? she wondered in the back of her mind), leaving behind a bunch of slime and a floating face-bubble. It flew away, presumably to Greenhorne since it was going back the way she came. She touched her face, finding some of the slime there. "Ugh!" She wiped it off onto her clothes, figuring that there wasn't much point in trying to keep them clean since they were already pretty dirty. She then pulled a small plastic container out of...somewhere (even she didn't know why she had many of the things she carried around) and collected the slime, figuring that it had to be useful for something.

"Where are you going after this, Isha?" asked the guardian spirit. That second time it spoke, it didn't pull her out of the real world. She wondered if anyone else could hear the guardian.

"Oh-um-home? I guess?"

"You aren't going to help the rest of those poor people?"

"Surely someone else will come along. Someone much more qualified than I am."

"But don't you remember? You just saved Asher's face! I wouldn't have called to you if I didn't think you could do it." It continued like it could sense her uncertainty, "How would you like to live without a face? Also, you owe me for saving your life back there."

"Okay, fine, I'll do it."

"Wait, really? Wow, I thought I would have to do some more convincing. Well, off you go, then! Defeat the Dark Lord! You should probably go see if Asher's alright first, though."

The walk back was uneventful, luckily. She was still recovering from the fight, and she didn't think she could survive another encounter for a bit.

She returned in time to see Asher's face reattach itself. The mother was still crying, but they were tears of joy. She fussed over her son, trying to make sure that he was alright. When she saw Isha approaching, she rushed up to Isha.

"Thank you so, so much! You saved my son!" She pulled out a pouch and handed it to Isha. "Here, please take this as a mother's appreciation." Isha looked inside it and found that it was full of coins.

"Oh, thank you!" Isha said, gratefully taking the bag. Before leaving, she looked around to see how many faces she had to save in the town. It seemed like there were only four people without faces, which was doable, she supposed. She really just wanted to get it over with.

"Didn't that feel good, to see how happy that mother was when you helped her son?" asked the guardian, startling her out of her thoughts.

"Well...yes," she admitted.

"Ho ho! I knew you'd come around."

"Oh, come on," she said, rolling her eyes.

"What did I do?" Upon receiving only a scowl in answer, he continued, "anyway, I'll heal your wounds, and you can set out to find the next face!"

That was good. The sooner she could finish this, the better. In moments, she felt all of her soreness and exhaustion melt away. It was like she hadn't fought the slime at all, except that she felt a bit more confidence in herself.

Soon after she set out, she was faced with a moth like the one that attacked her earlier that day. _Is it really still the same day?_ She ran up to it, smacking it with her stick before it could attack her. She could still remember the pain of her previous encounter with one of them.

It then attacked her, slapping her with its wings again. To her surprise, it didn't hurt nearly as much as the first time. She didn't stop to wonder why, wanting to focus on defeating it first. She did, after a few more hits. It crumpled to the ground and disappeared, the face flying away.

She was tired after the battle, even though it was only a moth. However, a few seconds after she won, a bolt of power shot through her, healing her injuries. She could sense a newfound inner ability to create fire by using her magic.

The butterfly left behind some pink honey, which she scooped up in another container. There were also a few coins, for some reason, next to the honey. She decided not to question it.

About thirty minutes later, a commotion on the path ahead of her caused her to quicken her pace. She saw a boy whose long, blue hair was tied up in a low ponytail. He appeared to be a warrior based on his attire. Two rock moths were circling around him, occasionally darting in to slap him. He was turning around and around, swinging at them, but he rarely managed to hit them. As she watched, she saw that he was dodging many of their attacks, but that he surely couldn't keep it up for long.

She began to walk to the side, intending to use their battle as a distraction so that she could sneak past the moths and continue on her way. However, before she could get far, the guardian spoke to her.

"Go on, help him!"

"Why? He looks like he's doing fine on his own," she said.

She got the feeling that the guardian was rather flabbergasted. "Come on, don't tell me you think you can beat everything by yourself. Imagine trying to fight two, three, four of those moths with just yourself and your stick! If you help him, he'll surely join you. You'll really need the help to defeat that Dark Lord."

"Why do you have to be right all the time?" she said, under her breath. She sighed, but complied, running over to the boy. "Need help?" she asked.

"No, no, I can handle this," he said, panting. "Go on, I'll be fine. Don't hurt yourself."

She ignored him, as he obviously was not fine. She decided to try out her new fire skill, aiming at the moth on the left. She smiled in satisfaction, her fire taking it out in one hit. Although he didn't seem to want to admit it, he appeared to be impressed.

He attacked next, slicing at the butterfly with all of his strength. That was all that was needed to defeat it, likely since he'd already hit them a bit before. They stood in silence for a moment, awkwardly looking at each other.

"Hey, thanks, kid," the boy finally said. "I'm Raiden. What's your name?"

"Isha."

"Alright, Isha, tell me. Why are you out here?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"You must know by now how dangerous it's getting out here. There's no way you're just out for a nice stroll when you have _that_ for your weapon."

Isha looked down at the stick in her hand, comparing it to his sword. She hated to admit it, but he had a point.

"Are you lost?" he continued. "I can help you get home safely. Where do you live? I'm not doing anything specific, so it really isn't a bother. I'm just trying to kill monsters, and I can probably do it just as well with you around. Especially if you get a better weapon."

"Before we continue, I think I should make something clear: I am not going home," she said, "for a very long time. Not until the Dark Lord is gone, at least. Perhaps not ever." She was rather appalled by his arrogance, and also by the fact that her guardian seemed to want her to invite him along. Did the guardian just not know that Raiden was like this, or did they just want him for his strength?

"What does the Dark Lord have to do with it?"

"I'm going to defeat him." She did not mention the fact that it was rather against her will.

She didn't appreciate the _really, you?_ face he was making. She wanted to just walk away and ignore him, but she could almost sense the guardian telling her off for that. She took a deep breath, exhaling slowly.

"It seems like we have common goals, Raiden. Like you said, going along with me would allow you to kill just as many monsters, perhaps more. I assume that you would like to see the Dark Lord defeated, as well. So I propose that we join up and begin adventuring together."

"Alright! Let's go, then!"

His abrupt departure surprised her so much that she had to sprint for a moment in order to catch up with him. He continued to jog for a while, leaving her with no choice except to run along with him. It was not long before they encountered a strange-looking monster called a goblin, which Isha was able to dispatch in one fire attack. Besides that short encounter, the rest of the jog was uneventful. It had gotten dark by the time they reached the inn. They slept the night in a room together, since there were few rooms left.


	3. Respect

I'm so sorry that it took so long! I got really stuck on a part, and then I got distracted by other stuff. Hopefully, the next chapter will be out sooner! I already have some writing for it, along with some ideas, so it shouldn't take incredibly long to finish it.

Fireking492: Aww, thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying it! This will probably be updated slowly since I am a very slow writer and I am attempting to reduce the time I spend on the internet. I will try to get this out fairly quickly, though!

DomesticatedPiggy: Thank you! That's very kind of you!

* * *

"So," Raiden said, sitting cross-legged on his bed. His hair was still in its ponytail, but it had gotten messier overnight. The elastic in his hair had slipped several inches, and little strands of hair were sticking out everywhere. He pulled the hair elastic out, letting his hair flow down his back for a moment, before gathering it back up and remaking the ponytail. "I think now's a good time to talk about this."

"About what?" Isha asked, sitting up and swinging her legs off of her bed.

Raiden stood up, striding over to the table that held Isha's wand. He picked it up, waving it around. "This! It's literally just a stick! Sure, it makes magic or whatever-"

"That's not how it works…" Isha said, interrupting him and rolling her eyes.

"But still, it's a terrible weapon," Raiden continued, ignoring her interjection. "If you keep hitting stuff with it, it'll just break in the middle of a battle. And that robe of yours? There's no way it'll last much longer."

"So what is your brilliant solution to this problem?"

"Well, since your equipment is so horrible, I propose that we get you an upgrade first. We have enough money to buy you either a new weapon or a robe. That store near the inn should have something."

Although Isha was annoyed by his tone, she had to admit that he was right. Although she had only fought a few monsters, and only been hit a few times, her robe was torn and dangerously close to falling apart entirely. He handed her the bag of coins, and she mumbled her thanks, walking out of the hotel and to the nearby store. She looked at all of the mage equipment, eventually choosing a linen robe. It was a plain, yellow color, other than a few stripes of purple. She could already tell that it would be much more protective than the robe she had been wearing.

Upon returning to the inn, she changed into her new robe. As she walked into the room, Raiden glanced up at her, then back down at the map he was poring over. Beside him, on the bedside table, was a messy pile of brochures and maps. He tossed the map he was holding onto the pile, frowning. "Useless," he said, mumbling under his breath. He then stood up, setting one map aside and pouring the discarded pile into a recycling bin.

"What are those for?" Isha asked.

"While you were shopping, I decided to look at some maps that I found on the ground floor. I was hoping I could map out a path, maybe choose some places that the faces might be hiding, but this was the only one that was useful. Now that you're back, I guess it's time to go." As Raiden spoke, he began to gather up his things. After another quick glance at the map he had chosen, he stuck it into a bag. He checked around the room one last time, before walking out of the room with an air of importance.

Isha, however, rolled her eyes, before grabbing her stick and following after him. They left the inn as quickly as they had entered the night before, the only remnant of their stay being the recycled maps. They returned to walking along the path. They saw no other people, and it was quite a while before they encountered any monsters. It was silent between them, with Isha still generally irritated with Raiden, and Raiden apparently not having anything to say. The silence lasted until a small group of monsters showed up to attack.

They got into their positions without having to think. Although she had only been in a few battles, Isha had already begun to get used to them. She was the first to attack, sending a damaging fire attack at a goblin. It died instantly, leaving a bit of ham behind. Raiden ended up killing the two moths that accompanied the late goblin, although Isha helped with one of them. When the battle was over, Isha gathered the items that the monsters dropped. The two of them just stood there for a few seconds. It seemed to Isha that Raiden wanted to say something, but after a few seconds of silence, she decided that she was mistaken. As she was turning to continue on the path, Raiden finally spoke.

"Hey. You did pretty well back there. I guess you aren't as helpless as I thought at first."

Isha paused for a moment, not quite sure how to respond. She finally settled on a "Thanks," before continuing to walk. Raiden, of course, hurried to catch up and made sure that he was in the front position. She rolled her eyes again, but she could feel that maybe, just maybe, she was slightly less annoyed than she would have been just a few minutes before. She still didn't like his overprotectiveness and arrogance, but she finally had a tiny bit of hope that it might get better as they continued on their journey. If it didn't, she thought she might go insane.


End file.
